On July 11,the gaming world lost a pioneer, as Mr. Satoru Iwata passed away at the age of 55. The president and CEO of Nintendo, Mr. Iwata was an employee at HAL Laboratories -think Kirby and Earthbound – before joining Nintendo in the mid 1990s. Iwata became the president of Nintendo in 2002, where he held the position for thirteen years, and was responsible for the huge commercial and innovative successes that are the Wii and DS systems.

Mr. Iwata will forever be remembered as a visionary and pioneer in the video game industry today. After taking the helm at Nintendo in 2002, he took the company in a new direction consistent with his vision that video games were for everyone. This brought us the Wii and DS systems, which are some of the most successful video game consoles in history. A passionate gamer, Iwata was always known as someone who was dedicated to his vision, and was always concerned about the quality of the product that his company was delivering to its consumers.

“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.” – Satoru Iwata

Personally, I will always remember Saturo Iwata from his appearances at E3 trade shows and Nintendo directs. Always smiling, and excited to show us new games from Nintendo, as soon as Mr. Iwata stepped on the stage you could see his enthusiasm for the product he was creating. His passion, creativity and leadership elevated the video game industry; he was a businessman with the heart of a true developer and gamer. Mr. Iwata is the reason I am currently pursuing a business degree, and I had always dreamed of being the one to one day take his place at the helm of Nintendo. A true inspiration for both gamers and managerial professionals, an act of his which really inspired me was when he voluntarily cut his salary in half following the poor start of the 3DS system in an effort for management to take responsibility for the console’s underperformance.

I believe I can confidently speak for all of us at Sandbox Gaming, as well as the rest of the video game community, when I say that Mr. Satoru Iwata will be truly missed. Video games would not be here today if not for his brilliant mind and I hope to take the lessons he taught us not only about video games, but about how to conduct a business, with me into the future.